The quick hit

Aimless drama centers on three bootlegging brothers chasing the American Dream in Prohibition-era Virginia. Grade: C

If "Lawless" was the TV miniseries it should have been (and looks like), a few episodes just might have been terrific.

But this saga of Prohibition-era moonshiners, the women they love and the "revenuers" they don't is aimless and overlong, an uneasy mix of dusty authenticity and hipster cool.

Based very loosely on real events (as recounted and imagined in Matt Bondurant's fictionalized family history, "The Wettest County in the World"), "Lawless" stars Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy and Jason Clarke as the Virginia mountains' bootlegging Bondurant brothers.

Already near legendary for their quality moonshine and seeming invincibility, the Bondurants refuse to bow down to gangsters (Gary Oldman, Dillinger-like) or share profits with corrupt agent Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce, a dandified city slicker with shaved eyebrows and a sadistic streak).

"Lawless," directed by John Hillcoat ("The Road") from a script by musician Nick Cave, focuses mostly on Jack (Shia LaBeouf), the sensitive brother with a knack for business.

Jack's intermittent narration does little to hold the ambling, picaresque "Lawless" together, though his wooing of a local preacher's daughter (Mia Wasikowska) gives the film heart.

With a Kevin Costner scowl, Hardy plays the gruff, domineering middle brother, and his reluctance with an admiring waitress (Jessica Chastain) seems contrived mostly as an homage to Warren Beatty's impotent Clyde Barrow from "Bonnie and Clyde."

Like that 1967 classic, "Lawless" is enamored of Depression style, though to much lesser effect. There's a too-cool artsiness here, from the studied threadbare costumes and "Boardwalk Empire" haircuts, to a soundtrack that features bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley singing the Velvet Underground's "White Light, White Heat."

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